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I am appalled nearly to the point of speechlessness by the very idea that someone would even suggest building a mosque two blocks from “Ground Zero” in Manhattan.

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In preparation for the publicizing for the new National Security Strategy by the Obama Administration, Mr John Brennan, White House Advisor on Counter Terrorism said the President’s strategy “is absolutely clear about the threat we face.” From such an announcement one would project that the new narrative would be as precise as it should be. That is to define the ideology and the goals of the forces we’re facing, namely the Jihadists, either Salafists or Khomeinists. Unfortunately, it was just the opposite. M. Brennan said the Obama Administration doesn’t “describe our enemy as ‘Jihadists’ or Islamists,” because (as he argued) Jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenant of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community.” He added that “the use of these religious terms would “play into the false perception” that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are “religious leaders and defending a holy cause, when in fact, they are nothing more than murderers.” In reality, abandoning the use of terms such as “Jihadists” or even “Islamists” in defining the threat is a strategic set back in the war of ideas fought against al Qaeda, the Taliban, Shabab al Jihad, Hezbollah, the Pasdaran and all other adherents to Global Jihadism. It is the equivalent in a classical war, of banning the use of radars, AWACs and broadcast. In short, this is a shortcut to utter self defeat.

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My friend has died.  Long live my friend.

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Anyone who needed added proof of the ongoing Leftist-Islamist alliance needs look no further than John Brennan, the terror Tsar who has repeatedly failed to keep us safe from Muslims trying to kill us in the name of Jihad. I thought he was merely incompetent. After all, 4 security breaches in such a short period is a terrible record by any measure. I now realize that he is merely a member of a leftist administration actively cooperating with Islamists in line with the old dictum that the enemy of my enemy is my friend as Jean Bricmont recommended in 2006 when he suggested that the left put aside its scruples and join the Islamists anti-Western side.

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We’re getting early reports that perhaps the “top kill” process may be stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf. We hope that’s true, and sustainable.

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I am new to the world of politics. For 20 years I’ve been serving my community as a CPA and Tax Accountant. I never imagined that when I entered the race for Congress from the 42nd district that I’d be swept up into a world of half-truths and deceptions but that is what has happened in my campaign to unseat six-term incumbent Gary Miller.

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Enough is enough. All the big Obama stimulus shovel did was create additional long term burdens for the US private economy in the shape of additional government jobs. It is time to ignore fallacious Summers/Rohmer arguments about being “penny wise and pound foolish.” 200 billion dollars should not be considered a penny especially as they need to be borrowed and paid back with interest. It is time to put down the only shovel they can. Even a Harvard study has concluded that it is simply making the unemployment hole deeper. It is bad enough that the American drilling moratorium, is about to make Ahmadinejad’s day. The US will have to buy continue to buy foreign oil. No wonder the price of oil started rising again.

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Is swagger dead? Has cockiness become outdated? Flip on the TV, there’s CNN’s Larry King chatting with Mick Jagger.

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A few months ago, Democrats voted to raise the national debt ceiling to $14.3 TRILLION, because $12.1 TRILLION just wasn’t enough. They did the deed, then ran away, hoping the American people wouldn’t notice.

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With the incredible out pour of time and effort given by our volunteers during flood season, it’s safe to say that this part of the country is ground-zero for community involvement. Volunteers come in every color, creed, and political persuasion… their good deeds shouldn’t be dismissed because of what they choose to believe in. We can all agree on that, right? Well . . .not all of us.

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So, are we ready for this morning’s top kill?

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Given that we’ve suffocated under the Obama regime for 16 months now, we know that we wake up every day to some new horror coming from him and his administration. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, some new appalling nightmare is sprung upon us.

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Then, Liberal Fascist Cole Porter wrote: “You’r the top; You’re Musolini. Today, Liberal Fascist Woody Allen would like to make Obama into a dictator. Well, these are irresponsible entertainers. The same cannot be said about Tom Friedman. He is an influential columnist and he dreams of making non other than Communist China’s president Hu Jintao, America’s dictator for a day! After all in China a Platonic philosopher king reigns with infinite wisdom and moral purity. No corruption to be found there. Only obvious optimal solutions are applied and, of course, the optimal solutions are obvious to both President Hu and Tom Friedman and brainless Andrea Mitchell dreams along during a recent Meet the Press panel discussion:

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     It’s not often that underwear takes on significance beyond its use unless Janet Jackson’s bra is malfunctioning or Victoria’s Secret is staging a major show.  Recently, however, three separate stories in the news showed how important underwear can be, reminding us all that mother’s advice to always wear clean panties was, as usual, far from trivial.  At the Australian Open, Venus Williams startled the crowd by wearing flesh colored undies, thereby giving the impression that she was mooning the audience.  Venus defended her nudie look by explaining that her chartreuse tennis dress had slits which were enhanced by the monochromatic flesh tones underneath.  This didn’t answer the question of why the panties couldn’t have matched the dress but never mind that match point.  Tennis whites have long gone the way of knickers, Bermuda shorts and hot pants yet Venus’ reality look gave everybody pause - do we really want that much information about her buttock alignment?  Is this appropriate for a game created thousands of years ago by European monks?

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Instead of “Allah Akbar” a southern Iranian crowd interrupted Ahmadinejad with chants of “We are Unemployed.” Official Iranian unemployment stands at 11%; unofficial at 25% and the country suffers from a double-digit inflation (about 20%). The drop in oil prices and production hence, income is a major problem for a government which subsidizes everything from electricity to gasoline, from bread to other food staples.

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A couple of months ago, President Obama called on the US to double its exports in two years. Indeed, his Assistant U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Ro Khanna says that Obama sees export growth as the right way to reduce unemployment: “Really, with this president the link between exports and job creation has never been made clearer.” Terrific idea. The trouble is that the weakening of the Euro means that America’s exports have just become more expensive, European (especially German) exports less expensive “with Renminbi having appreciated by 24% against the Euro since November> This means that China less willing to raise the value of its currency and Europe less willing to join the US in pressuring it to do so. Indeed, whatever hopes Clinton or Geithner had of a being able to return from China with promises of a prompt Chinese devaluation must be gone with the wind. Indeed, Hu says China to hold firm on yuan policy for it has its own priorities points out Head of China Research, Jonathan Fenby that China is $2500bn in the debt which it cannot case it and the value of which fluctuates in a manner it cannot control. Of course, one may add that its hopes that it could use the Euro to reduce its dollar exposure has been dashed along with American hopes that a booming China would be a democratizing China.

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The population of the “security zone” was about 150,000 counting the district of Jezzine; and its local forces were about 3,000 strong. the make up of the population was Christian, Shia and Druse with some Sunni villages to the East. To their north Hezbollah had massed its forces backed by Iranian Pasdaran advisors. Between 1984 and 2000 Hezbollah launched several offensives against the SLA positions but was unable to overrun them permanently. Evidently Israel’s Airforce and artillery provided the strategic counter balance. However in its ground attacks, Hezbollah would reach the SLA positions only to be driven back later. The southern Lebanese militaries were trained by the Israelis but knew the Hezbollah’s tactics first hand as they hailed from the same villages and had learned the tricks. Hezbollah most lethal weapon were the suicide attacks but in a local intra-Lebanese fight, suicide bombing doesn’t work. The southern Lebanese weren’t intimidated by the pro-Iranian Lebanese militias. Hence for almost 20 years, the SLA fended off the Iranian backed militia, as did the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan or the Kurds in Northern Iraq.against their respective enemies.

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“Please do not swallow the skin lotion.” That is an actual disclaimer, ladies and gentlemen, printed on every tube of Benadryl Extra Strength Itch Stopping Gel medication at the behest of the FDA. No kidding! It appears the government’s contempt for your intelligence has reached a new low.

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President Obama informed the graduating Cadets at West Point that the US will be facing the threat of al Qaeda for a long time to come. Defining the long term strategic threats is a very useful policy action both to Americans who need to brace for forthcoming challenges but also to audiences in the region to better understand US strategic priorities. In the same frame of mind, I published an article in the weekly al Watan al al Arabi where I outlined what I believe are America’s permanent strategic positions in the Middle East related to US national Security. Based on my work with members of Congress sitting on relevant defense and national security committees and on my interaction with many strategic and tactical analysts across the Government and private sector fields for many years, the consensus reached so far is that the two main (and active) threats against US national security in the post Cold War era are and continue to be the Salafi-Jihadi global networks including al Qaeda and a plethora of webs and organizations all marching in the same direction on the one hand; and on the other hand what I coin as the “Iranian-led axis” which incorporates the Tehran Khomeinist regime, Hezbollah, the radical pro-Iranians in Iraq and in other Arab countries and the Syrian regime’s Mukhabarat.

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Barack Obama came to power believing bowing and charming would do the trick. After four successful terrorist incidents he has reached the conclusion that it does not and unless he stems the rising domestic terrorist tide, his presidency will be finished. To convince Americans that he gets it, he forces his attorney general (the poster child of treating terrorists as garden variety criminals) to ask for legislative exemption of Miranda rights for terrorists. To further convince his own administration that he means business he fires somebody.

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     There may have been a time when shame held sway in public life, when exposed wrongdoers resigned in disgrace, hung their heads or at least pretended to be mortified.  That time is no longer.  The offender de jour, Richard Blumenthal, attorney general and senatorial candidate of Connecticut has been revealed as a man who feigned military service in Vietnam on several occasions and implied that he was a returning veteran, subject to society’s abuse at the end of the war.  Connecticut’s chief guardian of the law classifies these fabrications and misrepresentations as misplaced words which he had merely misspoken in referring to his service.  He claims to take full responsibility for this but by continuing to fudge the nature of his lie, he in fact, is taking none.  By insisting that he will not allow these few instances of misspeaking to impugn his service to his country, he misses the point.  It is not his service as a Marine Reserve that is being questioned - it’s his veracity or the lack therof;  it’s the nature of a character that would lie, then squirm out of a tight spot with arrogance instead of contrite admission.

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But the update I’ve been meaning to add to my article, and now to Mr. Pipes’ “affirmative action” take, is that this is all part and parcel of the Stockholm Syndrome that Westerners have been undergoing ever more fiercely since 9/11. We’ve been developing a fondness for the enemy, and hoping that he notices and grants us a reprieve.

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Predictably, the newly crowned Miss USA Rima Fakih is a member of the Facebook group “It’s Palestine, not Israel.” Might I suggest a compromise to this name issue once and for all. Couldn’t we just call it Palestein? [End.]

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Ahmadinejad, Erdogan and Lula overreached. Barack Obama may be ready to turn the other cheek but Vladimir Putin is not. If Ahmadinejad thought that he can replace with impunity an uranium exchange deal with Russia with an uranium exchange deal with Turkey and Brazil he thought wrong. Moscow may enjoy humiliating Washington almost as much as Tehran but not if the price includes Russia’s humiliation. Even China bulks at paying such a price.

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Invasive ductal carcinoma is, they tell me, the most common form of breast cancer and, it turns out, the form with which I was recently diagnosed.

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     Currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a show at the Costume Institute titled “American Woman:  Fashioning a National Identity.”  The curators combined the costumes transferred from the Brooklyn Museum with the Met’s own collection to chart the evolution of women’s fashion, body type and evolving place in society from the end of the 19th century to contemporary times.  There are several archetypes that serve to elucidate these changes and they are presented chronologically in successive galleries:  The Heiress, The Gibson Girl, The Bohemian, The Patriot & Suffragist, The Flapper, The Career Woman and The Screen Siren.  In each category, both the clothes and the set designs in which they’re placed are beautiful reminders of artistry and craftsmanship of the highest order.  An image eventually emerges of the 20th century woman who is active, athletic, physically fit, career oriented, adventurous and thoroughly appealing.  The exhibit ends with a massive photo-montage of famous and mostly recognizable women who have made their mark throughout the past century in various ways.

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One of the knocks on show business is that it is kinder to men than it is to women as they both grow older. Men like Cary Grant and Sean Connery who age gracefully often get choice acting parts while the phone stops ringing for women who were once big stars in their twenties and thirties. True enough. But last week’s news has the stories of four women, all of whom proved talent and determination can overcome. They survived and prevailed.

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Optimistic that nearly a trillion dollars of bailout funds could help stabilize the economic and civil unrest engulfing Greece, the markets rallied from last week’s bizarre performance to post the biggest one-year gains in more than a year. Hopefully this good news can help silence the chattering classes who are attributing all economic ills to the troubled Mediterranean nation, and end this media-driven frenzy.

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Remember when President Obama first came into office and started offering olive branches all over the place to every enemy America has ever known? In between apologizing for our past, our present, our strength, and our prosperity, the Bama promised our enemies great rewards if they’d just “unclench” their fists.

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While the world is viewing US treasuries as a safe heaven, Americans think they are a rather risky proposition. In a recent FT/Harris poll, 46% of the American people think it likely that the US government will ‘default’ in the next decade and only 33% think such ‘default’ unlikely. Only the French are more pessimistic about their government finances. 53% of the French expect their government to default in the next decade while 27% think it unlikely. The Germans are the most optimistic. Only 28% believe their government may ‘default’ while 43% think it unlikely.

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In the first few hours following the discovery of the car bomb in Time Square and the subsequent arrest of Faisal Shahzad at the airport, New York’s Governor David Patterson labeled the foiled car bomb attack in Times Square an “act of terror.” Janet Napolitano, our secretary of Homeland Security described it as “potential (then) act of terror.” Gradually US officials agreed, as information was gathered and more arrests were made, that this was an attack with the goal of mass killing in an urban area. Indeed, if the three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components found in the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, had exploded they would have –in the words of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly “caused a significant ball of fire.” New York’s Mayor Bloomberg said the explosion could have caused “huge damage on a block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists.” In short, federal and local officials understand clearly that the SUV-bomb was aimed at killing a large group of New Yorkers and visitors, causing severe damage to the area and a shock to the public (who would be traumatized by the sight of such pictures), had the “act of terror” been successful.

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